


The price of being a wolf

by tall_wolf_of_tarth



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/M, Libraries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:55:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21585718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tall_wolf_of_tarth/pseuds/tall_wolf_of_tarth
Summary: Werewolf Au in modern Westeros.Jaime is out of jail. Brienne is a werewolf. They work at the library basement.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 91
Kudos: 116





	1. The Beginning

“ _The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care.”_

*******

“Gods, you are a fucking big dog,” Jaime yelps. It's not the first thing that comes out of his mouth, the first thing was a string of obscenities, like _fuck, shit,_ and _Stranger fuck me sideways, fuckity fuck fuck fuck._ Surprisingly, the dog looks offended. It lifts its big head from its dinner -- a dead sheep -- and snarls at him. It _is_ a fucking big dog. In fact, it looks more like a wolf than a dog.

 _Don't be stupid, Jaime, there are no wolves at the south of the_ _Wall_ , Jaime tries to assure himself. But the wolf-slash-dog maybe doesn't know that it's not supposed to exist here at Riverlands. Jaime lifts his hands up in the air and immediately feels stupid again. The wolf wouldn't know he is unarmed.

He tries talking to it next.

“Never mind me, I was just passing through,” Jaime explains to the wolf-dog, who is the biggest beast he has ever seen regardless of its species. If it would stand up on its hind legs it would be taller than Jaime.

The wolf-dog snarls at him again. His muzzle has blood on it.

“Relax, boy. I'm not going to ask you to share your breakfast,” Jaime babbles stupidly to the animal and walks backwards on the path he came from hoping he doesn't stumble and fall over.

The beast doesn't follow Jaime and only stares at him with its piercing blue eyes. _Blue like the sky, blue like the sea in the south_ , Jaime thinks.

“I'm sorry for interrupting your meal.”

Gods, he really feels like an idiot.

Jaime makes his escape and when he reaches the road again he runs back to his apartment faster than he ever has before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoy this.


	2. Jaime's life in Riverrun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost every morning he sees the wolf-dog again. Usually from afar, lurking across the paths and disappearing back to the mist as soon as appearing, but sometimes she runs along with Jaime, her on the meadows and him on the paths. She is much faster than Jaime, and Jaime swears that the wolf-dog is smug about it.

**Jaime's life at Riverlands**

Jaime serves his six-month community service in an old dingy library, unpacking musty oöd books.

The work itself is not hard. It's mainly carrying crates, unpacking them and cleaning and cataloguing books found inside.

Jaime is lucky to have his court-enforced community service in a library, as the other jobs that were available under his parole conditions were hard or boring manual labour like cleaning streets or washing laundry. Most likely it’s his Lannister connections that have landed him in this rather cosy and non-boring job in the cellars of the university library.

Sometimes the work is actually pretty interesting because Jaime can look at the books while cleaning them, and some of the pages have beautiful coloured drawings and he can steal some moments to read a paragraph or two. That's not very often though, since his supervisor, Brienne Tarth, always catches him in the act of slacking.

Brienne Tarth is the worst part of his community service. Whenever Jaime is late to work even one minute, she looks at him disapprovingly and snarls “You'll have to cover that at the end of the day, you do realise that Lannister?” and he has to stay overtime that stupid minute, because Brienne Tarth is the one who signs his timesheets. Brienne also nags him about wearing cotton gloves, about dusting properly and about not bringing beverages to the storage room.

Brienne Tarth clearly hates him, which is not surprising as he is a convicted felon thrown upon her to monitor and babysit. And Jaime responds to her judgmental nagging with constant teasing and annoying that makes Brienne Tarth's face go rather pink with anger. Their constant bickering in the coffee room makes Jaime's cousin Cleos sigh loudly and plead “Jaime, please try not to be a dick.”

All of this could be forgiven if Brienne Tarth would have the decency to be a hot librarian. One with cute glasses, fuzzy cardigans and red lipstick. Brienne Tarth doesn't seem to need glasses, she never wears heels as she is already taller than Jaime even in her sneakers and she never wears any makeup. Brienne Tarth's face and hands are covered in million freckles, and she looks at Jaime with disdain shining out of her clear blue eyes.

She apparently owns only one outfit, blue jeans and light grey fisherman sweater. “Nice outfit, do you own any others?” Jaime looks up and down at her on his third day at the library basement but Brienne reacts only with eye-roll.

It takes Jaime over a week to see her wearing something else. Jaime is standing next to the staff entrance trying to decide what to text Cersei (he is not allowed to bring his phone to the storage room) when Brienne Tarth leaves the library wearing running gear. Tight leggings with a running jacket, with an ancient-looking canvas messenger bag slung across her body.

“New outfit, Ms Tarth” Jaime smirks, but Brienne reacts only with an eye roll. She turns her blue eyes away from him and leaves. Brienne Tarth apparently has the longest legs Jaime ever seen an ass so firm that Jaime's jeans feel tighter.

Jaime is not spared from Brienne Tarth even at his corner pub, discovers Jaime on Saturday. He spots his colleague standing by the bar, drinking beer by herself and looking at the game from nearby tv.

Brienne wears the third outfit of black jeans and camisole. Additionally, to firm ass and strong legs, Brienne Tarth has very wide shoulders. Her biceps and wide shoulders are all dotted with freckles. Every inch of Brienne seems to be covered with little dark specks.

When Brienne Tarth notices Jaime staring at her she winces like she has seen a particularly disgusting dog turd and turns away. _Seven save me from the scorn of Brienne Tarth,_ thinks Jaime and takes his drunk ass back to his dingy apartment where he masturbates furiously while decidedly not thinking what Brienne Tarth's freckles would taste like.

Running seems to be the only time he is spared from the presence of Brienne Tarth. Jaime runs every morning. He wakes up before the sun, puts on his sneakers, jogs down the quiet streets, crosses the railway tracks where the city ends and picks up the speed when he reaches the quiet country lanes, misty fields and dirt roads. He finds small tracks that take him across the meadows, next to the quietly bubbling stream and when he reaches the top of the hill he watches the rising sun clearing the mist.

He feels drunk in the open fields, drunk on the freedom and the smell of the meadows. He jogs his loop around nearby farms and tries not to think about the day ahead.

Almost every morning he sees the wolf-dog again. Usually, she looks at him from afar, lurking across the paths and disappearing back to the mist as soon as appearing, but sometimes the wolf runs along with him, her on the meadows and him on the tracks. She (and Jaime knows it's a she now) is much faster than Jaime, and Jaime swears that the wolf-dog is smug about it. He rarely sees other humans, except one day when a man appears through the mist.

“Have you seen a big wolf-dog running around here? The big ugly thing with the yellow coat?” the man asks. “The bastard keeps eating my livestock.” He carries a shotgun slung across his back.

“No, I haven't seen any dogs.” Jaime lies since the big wolf-dog disappeared behind the hedge only a moment ago.

In the end, Jaime's life in Riverrun is not too bad now when he is out of prison. He only needs to stay out of trouble, serve his mandatory days in the library and not to leave Riverlands before his community service is done. He doesn't have access to all his funds, but he has enough money in his disposal to pay for his apartment and the costs of his daily life.

Jaime doesn’t have much things to entertain himself with, as he has no other friends here besides Cleos who is as entertaining as drying paint. So Jaime goes running in the early mornings, takes a bus to the library and comes home with a book to read in the evenings.

It's a boring life, life of a sheep, Jaime thinks, but then, even lions need to lay low sometimes.


	3. Where we learn about their work and Jaime gets in trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime breaks his hand. There is wallowing.
> 
> Contains canon-typical violence, mentions of drugs and alcoholism (Cersei).

**Where we learn about their work and Jaime gets in trouble**

Jaime manages to stay out of trouble for almost two months. The day when everything goes tits-up starts normally enough. He goes running, spots the wolf-dog, runs home to take a shower and it’s not until he is standing at the bus stop and looking at his phone first time this morning he realises that something is wrong with Cersei. His sister has a habit of drunk-texting him increasingly incoherent messages through the night, but usually she only manages ten or twelve of them before she passes out. But now it's 68 new messages and 27 missed calls. All from her. Jaime sighs and scrolls through them. They are all full of drunken ramblings, photos of her clothes or drinks and pleas that Jaime should come to her. His sister treats Jaime's phone number like her own private Raven feed. The messages make Jaime anxious, as there is nothing he can do to help her from Riverlands. Jaime can’t go to Kings Landing until his parole is over and he suspects that even if he could go he wouldn't be able to help Cersei any way. His sister is an addict who doesn't admit that she needs help.

Jaime keeps his phone in his pocket when Brienne sends him to storage to fetch a new crate that they will unpack today. He manages to sneak a look at his phone without Brienne Tarth noticing and 15 new messages have appeared during the morning. They are full of vitriol, mixed messages of love and hate, threats and promises. It's not just wine any more, Jaime realises. Cersei is doing coke again. And that is very very bad, and he can't do much about it. He'll have to call Tyrion or uncle Kevan and ask one them to go and check Cersei's house. He briefly contemplates if he could explain the situation to Brienne so he could make calls right away but he doesn't want to explain his family drama to the sour-faced woman. He'll work until his lunch break starts and make his calls then.

Jaime sets the crate he fetched to the table. It's one of the unlabelled ones, so they have no idea what is packed there, except that it contains the books that they are adding to the library catalogue. There is about 300 huge crates full of rare and old books they need to catalogue. Some crates have labels, and they have the original catalogue to identify what is where but about half of the crates have lost their labels. Those can be real treasures, Jaime knows. He remembers one crate that was full of beautiful Dornish books, one particularly nice volume was filled with intricate drawings of ancient swords. But this crate appears to be the other kind. Full of crap. When they crack the lid open, they see only dozens and dozens of volumes of the same book – The Prayer Book of Drowned God. They look exactly like every volume of Prayer Book of Drowned God looks in every motel room in Westeros. Ugly green covers hiding endless sermons about _He Who_ _Dwells_ _Beneath the Waves._ And those particular books in front of them _stink_.

“It's seaweed,” Brienne explains. “The paper is made of seaweed.” Jaime unpacks the volumes from the crate and counts them. There are 343 identical copies. Each of them look brand new and unused.

“Right,” says Brienne. “You know the routine. Clean them, take the photos, label them and insert them in the database.”

“What, all of them?” She can't be serious.

“Yes, all of them.” She looks at him curiously.

“But, they are all identical?” This doesn't make any sense to Jaime.

“Yes, but we still need to catalogue them individually,” Brienne explains.

“But it's going to take a whole fucking week! And they are all identical copies of the most common book in the world?”

“Yes, but we still need to catalogue them. We need to insert them to the system individually.” The damn stubborn woman refuses to understand.

“We could just dump them back and bring another crate. It's not like we don't have enough crates to go through the next decade.” Jaime suggests. She doesn't seem to understand still.

“We have to unpack all the crates eventually. We might as well do this now.”

“You mean that _I_ might as well do this now. I don't see you sitting around inserting 343 identical copies to the database.” Brienne usually works with rare books.

And now she looks pissed. Her voice raises. “It's literally your job to do so, Mr Lannister. You are here to do your community service, and this is the task you need to do today. Unless you want me to inform your parole officer that you refuse to work?”

And now Jaime is also pissed. He drops empty crate to the floor with a clatter.

“Why are you are as stubborn, woman?” The rage inside Jaime feels burning hot.

“My name is Brienne!” The stupid ugly woman is now red as a beetroot. “When you have finished having your temper tantrum, I expect you to start working on these books or piss off from my library!”

With these words, Brienne Tarth stomps away from the table. Jaime kicks the empty crate and stubs his toe in the process. There is nothing he can do. He can't quit, next job that they would offer him would be even shittier. He wants to go to Kings Landing to check up on his sister, but he can't leave Riverlands. He pulls out his phone from his pocket. More texts and more missed calls from Cersei. He sends a quick group text to Tyrion, aunt Genna, uncle Kevan and with small wavering, he also adds Stannis Baratheon to the list.

“Cercei is doing coke again. Please someone go and check up her and the kids.” Then he picks up first of the 343 identical volumes of Prayer Book and starts working. The books are ugly and boring. The rage inside Jaime keeps burning but can contain it.

When his lunch hour finally comes (he has managed to clean, label and catalogue 23 volumes of Prayer Books) he passes the staff break room (where Brienne Tarth is wolfing down her lunch) and goes to the street to call Tyrion. The call goes to a voice mail. He calls Kevan next, but his uncle doesn't answer either. A text comes from Cersei. It's a selfie of her, puffy-eyed, face swollen and tears and makeup running down her face. “I love you, I love you, I love you” the caption reads.

Jaime sighs and goes back to the basement to catalogue some more stinking books. Brienne Tarth sits by computer with headphones on, editing photos she has taken of a book she is digitalizing. As soon as the clock hits five Jaime leaves the library, calling Tyrion while walking. It goes to voice mail again. He checks his phone and sees that texts from Cersei have stopped in the afternoon. He has a text from Kevan requesting him to call back, and when he does so Kevan picks up immediately.

“Jaime” his uncle breathes. He sounds much older than his years would suggest. “Bad things happened.”

“Is it Cersei? What did she do?”

“Well, no. Or yes, it's Cercei too. She had a meltdown, but Genna has managed to get her checked into a clinic. Kids are with Stannis.”

“Shit, ok. But it's good, isn't it? That she agreed to go to rehab?”

“Yes, Jaime, that at least is good.” There is a pause. “But there is more.” Jaime waits him to tell.

“Your brother is in jail.”

***

Jaime takes a bus home and doesn't look at his phone any more. He doesn't want to go to his empty apartment, he only wants to get properly drunk, so he would forget his shitty life for even a few hours. His corner pub is full of people so he parks himself to the bar and starts drinking steadily. He is well in his cups when he spots Brienne Tarth standing with a beer and watching the game. She is wearing a tank top again and has her ratty-looking canvas bag slung across her back. Brienne is not wearing a bra and Jaime can clearly see her pointy little breasts under the fabric. She notices him staring at her and Jaime turns away, embarrassed. He keeps drinking and ignores everyone else around him. He does notice Brienne stealing glances at him and it's not long after when she comes over to him.

“Brienne! My favourite bully and jailor.” Jaime greets her. “What do I owe the pleasure? You know you can't boss me around here, right?”

“You should go home.” Brienne looks at him with her pretty blue eyes and puts her hand on his shoulder. Her touch is surprisingly gentle.

“Why? I'm having a splendid time here and now I have the pleasure of your company as well.”

Brienne's hand still on his shoulder. It feels warm.

“I knew you wanted to get your grubby paws on me, Ms Tarth. It's about time, I say. All these days together in the dark storage rooms, it's bound that you would fall on my charms.”

She takes away her hand and Jaime immediately wishes it back.

“You should really go home, Jaime, you are quite drunk,” she tells him again.

“I can't,” he says. The room sways around him. “I'm not allowed to leave Riverlands.”

“Go to your apartment then,” she says quietly.

“I told you, you can't bully me here, Hot Librarian.” Brienne has little freckles all over her collar bones and her pointy breasts stare at him.

“Suit yourself then,” she tells him and goes back to watch the game.

“I didn't want your company anyway!” he calls after her, finishes his drink and decides to leave. Brienne stays behind in the pub.

It's outside the pub when Jaime realises how drunk he actually is. He stops by an alley to gather himself. Just when he is deciding -- to puke or not to puke -- he is suddenly crowded by some snotty teenagers.

“Alright, old man, give us your phone and wallet,” one of them says. _Shit_. There are at least four of them, and they are not drunk like he is. But fuck is he going to give his wallet and his phone to some stinking teenagers.

“Piss off, I'm not going to give you anything.”

And of course, that earns him a beating. Jaime manages to throw a punch to one of them but then suddenly he is on the ground, being kicked and held down. Hands are going through his pockets. Jaime tries to fight back, but he is way too drunk and it only makes the boys more aggressive. A snotty looking boy suddenly has a brick in hand, and he tries to hit Jaime's face with it. Jaime manages to roll away, and the brick hits his hand instead. He hears a terrifying sound, big snap, and then the world goes white with pain. Everything around him feels like slow-motion. The boy lifts the brick up again, and Jaime has time to think, “Alright, this is it I guess, I'm going to get smacked to the head with that, aren't I” and he almost accepts his oncoming death.

But then something big charges to the boy with the brick. That something makes a loud growl and Jaime sees the boy with a brick trying to fight off a big fucking dog. No, not a dog, Jaime realises. It's the wolf-dog from the fields. The wolf pins the attacker to the ground, lifts her head – and Jaime sees she has blood on her muzzle again – and growls again loudly. The sound she makes is primal and it sends shivers down Jaime's back and it makes his mugglers to run away. The one on the ground, with the wolf on top of him, pisses himself, yells _fuuuuck, fuuck,_ manages to gather himself away and follows his companions to the street.

It's only the wolf and Jaime now on the alley, and Jaime's hand is on fire. He doesn't know what to say or do, so his body decides that now is the time to vomit out all that cheap booze he managed to imbibe earlier.

When he comes to his wits again, the wolf-dog is gone and Brienne Tarth is crouching next to him. Her eyes are filled with worry and she seems to be on the phone. “Brienne, there's a wolf here. You should be careful” Jaime manages to say to her. Brienne puts away her phone and focuses on him.

“There is no wolf here. You were attacked, Jaime. I think your arm is broken, so just stay still, ok?” Jaime feels dizzy again. “Help is on the way, Jaime, stay with me, ok?” Something warm seems to trickle down from his sleeve.

 _Where would I go_ , Jaime thinks, _I have no place to go_. Then there are paramedics around him, Jaime hears Brienne talking them, someone gives him a shot that eases the pain in his arm and it's easier just to let go.

Brienne doesn’t ride in the ambulance with him or follow him to the hospital. Jaime is quite alone when he is rolled to Radiology for his x-ray. There is no one there to hold his hair when he vomits to a cardboard bowl. He sees the weariness of the staff in the ER, and he supposes that he is not the only drunken idiot this late Friday night they need to help. He is probably on the worst of them, drunken convict who got in the fight with literal children.

Jaime needs to sober up before they can take him to surgery to fix his hand, and during this long wait, he only sees the nurse who comes to measure his alcohol level. This must be the shittiest day in his life, Jaime decides before remembering _that day_. Alright, second shittiest day then. He didn't have anyone to support him then either. And finally, he is taken to the surgery to get his wrist fixed – it was broken like Brienne said, Jaime saw the bone sticking out when the ER nurse cut off his clothes with scissors.

After surgery, he is alone again. There is no chorus of worried family members crowded around his bed when he wakes up, sluggish and nauseated. His right hand is in a splint and his mouth still tastes like vomit.

“We were unable to reach your emergency contact, Mr Lannister” weary-looking nurse tells him.

Tyrion is in jail, Jaime remembers.

“Do you have your phone with you? I can call your friends or family members if you give me their numbers” the nurse offers him.

There isn't anyone who could come, Jaime knows. His sister is in rehab, and he wouldn't want to worry Aunt Genna or Uncle Kevin at the middle of the night with his broken wrist, not when they have had to deal with Cersei's and Tyrion's shit all day. And his father is a cold bastard who wouldn’t come anyway. He briefly considers calling his cousin Cleos before he remembers that the bastards who broke his hand stole his phone and wallet. In the end, the only person who probably would need to know about Jaime's hospital stay is his parole officer. The thought is so pathetic that it hits him like a truck full of sadness. He is completely alone in the world, he broke his hand, he has to catalogue 300 identical copies of Prayer Books next week and there is no way of knowing when he is ever able to go back to his own life in King's Landing.

 _I’m going to just fucking die here_ , Jaime decides. _Should be doable. I just need to stop eating and drinking and it will happen eventually._ It’s not long after that Brienne Tarth appears by his bedside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm feeling quite unsure about this fic, so please leave a comment or kudos if you enjoy it.


	4. Brienne bullies Jaime in the hospital

**Brienne bullies Jaime in the hospital**

Brienne Tarth in the hospital is just as bossy as in the library. She walks to his room, adjusts his pillows, picks up a controller to lift his bed up a little and hands him a juice box that a nurse has tried to get him to drink.

“I don't want this.” Jaime feels like a petulant child. He is thirsty and hungry, but he still is upset about waking up alone after surgery. Brienne looks at the juice box.

“What, you don't like lingonberry juice?” Jaime actually likes lingonberry juice. He stares at the box sullenly.

“Drink your juice, you'll feel better afterwards.” She sounds softer now, which irritates Jaime more.

“You can't tell me what to do, at least not here.” Jaime tries to argue again but drinks the juice anyway. He feels instantly better.

“You are such a dumbass, Jaime Lannister”, Brienne sighs and sits down at the edge of his bed. “You should have just given them your things, it might have spared you all this.” She looks pointedly cast propped up against pillows and digs into her ratty messenger bag. “How is it?”

“Well it’s broken” he retorts. Brienne lifts her eyebrows.

“I’m going to have another surgery on Monday. You’ll have to find someone else to bully in the storage room now.” Brienne scowls at that.

“I’ll call your parole officer on Monday and let him know you are in hospital. You'll miss some days certainly and you'll have to compensate them later.”

He will have to stay in Riverlands even longer. Despair hits Jaime again.

“I'll never going to be able to leave, am I? They fucked up my arm, I can't do my fucking community service while I'm crippled so I either end back to prison or I have to live in Riverrun forever.”

Brienne smiles to that. “Don't be so dramatic. You broke one bone, it's not like they amputated your hand. It will take a couple of months to mend and then you'll be fine.” She hands him his sandwich now. “Eat.” Jaime munches his food and remembers how Brienne's hand felt on his shoulder. A thought occurs him.

“Did you have to lie to the nurses and tell them you're my girlfriend?”

“What?” Brienne blushes to furious shade of pink. “No, of course not. They just let me in.”

And then Brienne does a magic trick and produces a tote bag out of her gritty messenger bag, containing Jaime's phone and wallet. The cash is gone from the wallet, and the screen on his phone has a crack on it, but all his cards are still there. And the phone is even connected to a power bank.

“How did you get these?” Jaime's eyes open. She looks away before answering.

“I looked around in the alley and just found them.” She orders him to unlock his phone and then proceeds to fiddle with it.

“Do you have any music here? Or audiobooks?”

Jaime shakes his head. When Brienne hands his phone back to him, it's connected to hospital wifi and has a music app installed. She even has saved her contact on the phone, under Hot Librarian.

“It’s depressing to be alone in the hospital, I know. But try not to listen to anything too morbid. I'll come back tomorrow, so text me if you need anything.” Then she stands up, leaves the tote bag on his bed and leaves.

The bag contains headphones, a charger for his phone, toothbrush and a packet of cookies. Jaime's broken arm hurts so much that his eyes start to water.

**

Jaime eats half of the cookies before reading his messages. There are none from his family, but Addam Marbrand has sent him a comment about Tyrion and is asking how Jaime’s parole is going. Jaime types a short reply but doesn’t mention his injury. He has to prop up the phone against his pillow to type with his left hand. That makes him feel wretched, so he picks up the headphones, plugs them in and checks the music app. Brienne has logged in with her own account. He can see all the playlists that she has made and the songs she has listened. This small insight for her mind delights Jaime.

There is a playlist called “Work” that has folk ballads sung by girls with calm voices and Jaime remembers how often Brienne sits at the computer with headphones on. Jaime renames the playlist to “Jaime Lannister is an annoying ass”. Delighted by his own ingenuity he settles to listening to it and lets the painkillers to pull him to sleep.

On the afternoon he pulls himself together and calls his aunt Genna to tell her about his mugging and hospital stay. He leaves out the wolf part, and how drunk he was.

“Oh Jaime,” Genna sighs.

“We really are fucked up, me and my siblings, aren't we? Tyrion was arrested for fraud, Cersei is in rehab and I crippled myself. Father is going to get a stroke when he hears.”

“Do you want me to call him and tell about it?”

“Yes I do, thank you. But maybe not today, ok? I'm not sure I can face his wrath right now.”

Then Jaime tells Genna what the doctors said and about the upcoming second surgery. He doesn't tell her how down he feels, but his aunt seems to know anyway.

“You are going to be fine.” She tells him gently and Jaime's arm aches again.

On Sunday, Cleos comes by to chat and manages to cheer Jaime up by his leaving. A fruit basket arrives, from his uncle Kevan, and soon after that, his father calls. After that Jaime feels terrible again. How can his father be so cold, when his aunt Genna is so warm and kind, Jaime reflects, not the first time. To cheer himself up he puts on music again, and notices that the first song on the playlist called “Jaime Lannister is an annoying ass” is now song called “He really is, isn't he”. The song turns up to be an annoyingly catchy pop ballad from Pentoshi boy band and that makes Jaime smile a little.

Owner of said playlist appears on the afternoon with an assortment of snacks and a book. Jaime doesn't know what to say to Brienne. There are many things he should say, but no words come out of his mouth. Brienne seems to be mute as well. They stare at each other awkwardly, until Jaime manages to blurt:

“So, how did you find me there? On the alley?” Brienne goes red again and looks away.

“Ah, umm. Well, I left soon after you, and I heard shouting when I was walking by, so I looked and saw you there with them.”

“Did you see the wolf? Well, not a wolf, a really big dog really, but did you see it? It came out of nowhere and attacked one of the assholes. Basically the dog saved my life.”

“I didn't see any dogs,” Brienne replies and makes a face.

She asks if his family is coming and seems to be surprised when he says he only expects Cleos to visit. Jaime doesn't want to talk about his shitty family situation, so he picks up the book she brought the day before. It's a collection of legends and stories, with vibrantly coloured illustrations.

Brienne must have noticed that he likes these kinds of books.

“You are really too kind to a crippled dumbass.”

“Don't use words like that, you are not crippled.”

“But I am a dumbass.” She smiles a little to that. Brienne is wearing a tank top with a leather jacket over it, and Jaime can't stop staring at the constellations of tiny freckles on her skin. He puts his own hand on top of hers.

“Brienne. Thank you.” Jaime manages to say.

“For what?” She has gone pink again.

“For calling an ambulance. And coming to see me here. And for things.” Jaime squeezes her fingers.

“You really are too kind to me, even when I'm being an annoying ass. Thank you.”

Brienne looks at him a long time before she answers.

“You know it's really not kind to help someone who is hurt or visit them in the hospital. It's basic human decency.”

It's a strange world, Jaime thinks. One, where visiting your annoying colleague in the hospital is a normal thing to do. He thinks that Cersei would never visit anyone's sickbed. She always stayed away from Jaime when he had a cold. Tyrion would go and visit his friends in the hospital, but Jaime doubts if annoying colleague would earn a visit from Tyrion.

Brienne doesn't stay long this time either, but promises to visit again on Monday after work. She keeps that promise and comes again every night after his second surgery, until he is released from the hospital a few days later.

Everything is much more difficult with one hand in the cast; Jaime learns when he is back home. He manages to smack himself on the face with his cast before he remembers not to use his right hand to fix his hair. Dressing is a struggle and he doesn't even attempt anything in the kitchen but eats out three times a day. His parole officer calls him, and explains that he is allowed to recover before returning to his mandatory community service, but he still needs to replace the days he missed. And if Jaime stays away too long from the library he will be replaced with another worker and he will have to apply for another place. So Jaime goes back to work on next Monday.

Thankfully all 343 volumes of The Prayer Book of Drowned God have been cleaned, labelled, catalogued and stuffed away in his absence. Only whiff of seaweed is left in their workroom. Brienne takes a long look at Jaime on Monday morning and puts him to work with the computer. He can sit while working and he wont need two hands for typing. It takes Jaime awhile to manage computer mouse with his left hand, and he really is quite slow with everything but Brienne doesn't seem to notice. She even turns a blind eye when he clearly dozes off for an hour in his chair, too tired from pain meds. Brienne really is too kind, he realises, so he tries not to abuse her kindness and ups up his coffee intake to be more alert.

They even start to talk to another. Brienne is setting up a book about trout fishing to scanning station when Jaime decides to ask about the rumour he heard on his first day.

“Is it true that one of the crates has treasure in it?” Brienne looks up from her book.

“Well no. Not a treasure as such. But according to catalogue, there should be two very rare books somewhere in those crates. They are called Stark 2 and 3. But it could very well be that they have been stolen ages ago.”

“And it's your task to find them?” Jaime is intrigued.

“Not as such, no. My task is to process as many books as possible to make them available for the public.”

“Ah, but treasure hunt sounds much more fun.” She snorts at that, and goes back to work. Together they manage to process 3 crates of books before the week ends. None of them contain any treasures but thankfully no religious texts either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we will get more werewolf stuff.


	5. Jaime takes injured dog to a vet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The veterinarian, a creepy looking bastard, only stares at the giant dog who looks like a wolf, and Jaime is not able to come up anything besides: “Someone asshole shot my dog.”  
> Apparently that is sufficient for the veterinarian, who wheels the dog to the clinic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, someone shoots a wolf, so there is that. and a cone of shame.

**Jaime takes injured dog to a vet**

Jaime has to wait a few weeks before he is allowed to run again. Not that he wants to in the beginning as he is too much in pain and way too tired to do anything else besides working or sleeping. But after a few weeks he starts to miss his early mornings. He misses the feel of dirt paths under his sneakers. So when he gets permission from his maester, he puts them on and goes running. He doesn't see the wolf until a few days later, but when he does he stops on the path. The wolf stands still, quite afar, and watches Jaime carefully.

“Thank you!” Jaime tells the wolf. He has decided that she is a wolf, and not a wolf-dog or a dog. “You saved my life, so I own you one.” The wolf bows her head, turns away and disappears to the hedges again.

It's a few weeks later when he hears a gunshot on his morning run. It's eery Saturday morning, the fields are hidden by the mist, and the noise startles the birds. Jaime stops for a moment, needing to think of what to do. It's probably a farmer shooting a rabbit or something, he decides. Still, he turns around and decides to go home. It's half a mile later when he hears a cry.

“Jaime,” a woman's voice calls him. He looks around. First, he doesn't see anything, but then he spots her. It's Brienne, sitting on the ground by the road. She is holding her shoulder, and there is blood on her hands. Jaime's stomach drops.

“Oh shit,” he exclaims and runs to her. “What the fuck happened to you? Did someone shoot you?”

“Jaime,” she says, “you need to help me.” He kneels next to her and starts looking for his phone.

“I'm calling the police.” Brienne grabs his wrist before he can find it.

“No, Jaime. No police.” She looks at him with fierce blue eyes. “Jaime. Promise me. Don't call anyone. Don't take me to hospital, you can't take me there, do you understand?”

“What, why not?” He doesn't understand.

“Please listen. Please.” She begs him now. “You need to take me to a vet.” This makes even less sense.

“A vet? Why?”

“There is one nearby where you live. Take me there. To a vet clinic.” Brienne starts to cry.

“You are in shock. You need --” But she pushes him away.

“Look!” and then something happens. He doesn't see the actual change, it's just in a blink of an eye when Brienne is gone. Instead of the girl, there is a wolf laying on the ground, with a gunshot wound. It's the same wolf he has seen on the fields, the one who saved his life.

**

He almost runs away. But the wolf looks at him with her blue eyes, same eyes like Brienne's eyes. There is Brienne's ratty messenger bag on the ground next to the wolf. Jaime's brain goes to knots, he doesn't know what to do, what should he do? The wolf whimpers, and Jaime forces himself to stop panicking.

 _So, alright, there is a wounded animal, right. Who needs help. You'll have take it to a vet clinic._ There is a vet clinic in the neighbourhood, Jaime remembers. _But the wolf, gods, you can't take a wild animal to a vet clinic, can you?_ Despair starts to well inside him again. _You'll have to say that it's your dog._ The calm voice in his head sounds like Addam when Addam talked him through one his freak-outs in high school. _Yes_ , _I'll take this big fucking dog to the vet clinic, and they will know what to do._

So Jaime picks up Brienne's bag and puts it across his shoulder. Then he picks up the dog, and starts walking. He immediately realises that he will not get very far with her. He is strong, but his one hand is in a cast, and the dog is heavy.

 _Alright_ , he says to the dog. _I think I can manage to get us away from here and nearer to the city, and then I need to call a cab or something._ So he does that. As soon as he is on the bigger road, with cars running by, he settles the dog on the ground and sits next to her. She whimpers little.

“I know, girl, I'll get us there, don't worry.”

He picks up his phone and puts in a request to the ride-sharing app. _I have an injured dog who I need to get to vet clinic”_ he types into details, shares his location and presses send.

“Which gods do you pray, girl? They better be good ones” he says to the dog. Whatever gods she worships they are helpful ones, because Jaime gets a response almost immediately. 20 minutes later their ride is there.

Jaime is sure that the driver will take one look at two them and drive the fuck away, but instead, the man comes out of the car and is surprisingly calm. “Well, that is a bigger animal than I expected” he exclaims. “Never mind though, let's get you two to the vet, alright.” Meribald, the man introduces himself, talks almost constantly, but he has a calm voice and he seems to know much better what to do. They haul the dog to the back of the car, on a blanket, and Meribald drives them to the vet clinic. He even calls the clinic ahead to warn them _about incoming emergency patient_ and Jaime feels like a child thinking _thank gods there is an adult knows what to do_.

Meribald hands them over to clinic door to employees, shakes Jaime's hand and finishes it with “Let me know when they are done with her, I'll come and drive you two home, son.” The veterinarian, a creepy looking bastard, only stares at the giant dog who looks like wolf and Jaime is not able to come up anything besides: “Someone asshole shot my dog.”

Apparently that is sufficient for the veterinarian, who wheels the dog into the clinic.

**

Jaime is sitting in the hallway of the clinic when an employee comes over with the papers.

“Mr Tarth? Could you please follow me?” She leads him to the registration desk.

“The surgeon is now operating the animal you brought in. It will be several hours before you can take her home.” He doesn't know what to say to that, so the woman continues.

“We need to check your information to our system. Are you Brian Tarth?” Apparently he makes a face, since the woman looks at the screen again and says: “Sorry, are you the owner? We scanned her microchip and it says the owner is Brienne Tarth.”

Jaime rubs his face and in a surprising fit of inspiration comes up with: “No, that's my girlfriend.” He pauses for a moment, and repeats. “It's my girlfriends dog.” The employee looks relieved, and types to computer a moment, hands him some papers to sign and hands him a bill with an obscenely high number on it. He numbly pulls out his credit card and pays it. _Thank the fuck I'm not poor._

“We will call you when you can pick her up.” and Jaime doesn't know what else to do so he leaves the clinic.

He doesn't go home. He distinctly feels if he will go home now he would not come back again, so he walks onward until there is a bench where he collapses.

_There was a werewolf._

No. That couldn't have happened. There are no werewolves.

 _Brienne changed to a wolf_.

No, that couldn't have happened either.

_You thought you saw Brienne, but it was a wolf._

Yes. That could have happened. Well, no. There are no wolves in Riverlands.

 _It was a dog._ Yes _._ That makes sense.

 _You saw an injured dog, so you took it to the vet_. Yes. That's what happened, he nods to himself. _I saw an injured dog and took it to a vet._ Now he just needs to know what to do next.

He has papers in his hands, the bill. He reads it.

Patient name: Lady

Species: Dog

Breed: Husky

Owner: Brienne Tarth.

There's her address and phone number as well. Oh, Brienne lives nearby, Jaime realises. Is the dog Brienne's? He didn't know Brienne has a dog. There is a microchip number. Oh, good, he thinks, there is a chip so the clinic can find the owner, before his brain catches up what he read before. Brienne owns this dog. _Brienne changed to a wolf_ , a voice in his brain (who doesn't sound like Addam at all) tries to whisper before he smothers it. _If Brienne owns this dog, I should call her so she can come and pick her up._ He digs out his phone and calls her. Something starts ringing next to him – of course. He still has Brienne's messenger bag with him and Brienne's phone is ringing in the bag. _Brienne is a werewolf._ As soon as the thought formulates it lodges itself in his brain and refuses to leave.

_Brienne changed to a wolf and I took her to a vet._

He doesn't know how long he sits on the bench before they call him, but when they do, he is shivering with cold. He rummages through Brienne's bag and finds a hoodie in it so he puts it on before walking back to the clinic. He sends a quick message to Meribald, who promises to be at the clinic in half an hour. He dreads going back to the clinic. What if there is no wolf there, or what if the wolf has changed back to Brienne? Would they blame him for bringing a werewolf to the vet clinic? The thought is absurd.

But still, what will he do with the wolf? Should he take her to Brienne's apartment? He rummages through her bag, but finds no keys there. He goes to sit at the vet hallway again and listens to voices behind the door. _“A_ _fucking husky?”_ A mans voice behind the door huffs. _“That looks more like a fucking direwolf.”_ Another voice responds. “ _I wouldn't want to be nearby when this beast wakes up.”_ Fuck.

***

Meribald comes to bring to help again and together with clinic employee they shuffle the unconscious wolf to Meribald's car again. “It will take a couple of hours to sedatives to wear off,” the man explains him. Jaime is still nervous in the car that the wolf will change back to Brienne while they are driving, but when they arrive to Jaime's apartment building and open the trunk the wolf is still there, wound covered in white gauze and tape. Jaime manages to haul unconscious wolf – Lady? – Brienne? – to his arms, but its a struggle with the stupid cone on her neck. Meribald helps him with building door and Jaime nods his thanks to the cab driver at the lobby. When Jaime finally manages to get through his apartment door his arm is throbbing.

He lowers the wolf carefully to the floor and sits beside her to catch his breath again. Lady, as Jaime decides to call the animal as it doesn't seem to feel right to call her Brienne, lays quietly on the floor with eyes closed. “You look like a lamp with that thing,” he tells her. He feels a mixture of fear, anxiety and need to freak the fuck out bubbling inside him, but he decides firmly not to.

Instead he takes off her hoodie and covers the wolf with it. He also fills a soup bowl with water and sets that next to her. As an afterthought, he goes back to the kitchen and comes back with a glass of water and adds that next to the bowl.

 _The fuck I'm doing._ He rubs his face and almost freaks out again. Instead, he goes to the bathroom to rid himself of bloodstained clothes and washes himself. Before he opens the bathroom door he closes his eyes and wishes very hard that all of this has been a dream, that there is no huge fucking direwolf? Dog? Werewolf? annoying woman from the library? in his hallway, dressed in the cone of shame.

When he steps to the hallway the wolf is still laying on the floor, unconscious and covered with the hoodie, but the cone of shame has been thrown across the hallway. Also, the water glass is empty. _Well_ , he thinks, _at least I got something right_. Exhausted with everything Jaime goes and collapses on his sofa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed this.


	6. Jaime takes care of Brienne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So you are a werewolf then?” That feels very weird thing to say, and Brienne looks uncomfortable as well. She pulls the blanket even higher. It's just the blue eyes and mop of yellow hair now peeking him now.
> 
> “Something like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pure self-indulgence. I hope you like it too! and happy holidays!

Jaime takes care of Brienne

Jaime stirs when he hears a groan from the hallway, jumps up from the sofa like it was on fire, but then stalls. What or who will be on the hallway floor, will it be the wolf or a girl? She moans again, with a Brienne's voice, so Jaime feels safe enough to go and check her. His mind briefly wonders what would he have done if had sounded like the wolf, but when he sees her the thought escapes him.

Brienne lays on the floor on her side, trying to rise up and failing. Her face is scrunched up with pain and she looks like she's been through hell. Her clothes are torn and covered with blood and her skin is white as a sheet and there are white gauze dressings taped on her right shoulder. Jaime rushes over but stalls again. Brienne manages to sit up and looks up at him, and there is such panic and fear on her face that Jaime's heart clenches. She is always so calm and together, it's strange to see her upset.

“Jaime” she manages to croak.

“What can I do?” He hovers awkwardly, not sure what to do or say.

She looks disoriented and weak.

“I got shot.” she whimpers quietly. “Again.”

“Yes, you got shot, I mean what the hell, you've been shot before?”

He desperately wants to ask her _about the wolf thing_ but doesn't seem the right time for it. “How do you feel now?”

“I feel like shit.” She tries to get up again. “My feet don't work.”

“It must be the meds they gave you in the clinic. They'll wear off in a couple of hours they said.”

That apparently is somehow a wrong thing to say, because Brienne hides her face behind her hand and makes a sound that almost sounds like howling. She is crying, he realises.

“This is so bad, I don't know what to do.”

“It's alright, you're alright,” he tries to comfort her. “Let me help, alright. What do you need?”

She gathers herself for a moment and stops crying.

“I need the loo.”

“Alright, I can help you to the loo. Can you stand?” It takes some effort to get her up on her feet and walk her to the washroom, she is so very tall and broad, but Jaime is strong enough. He gets her settled to the seat and turns around when she starts pulling down her sweatpants.

“Shoo, Lannister,” she says weakly. “I'll call if I fall in.” So Jaime leaves her to her business and hovers awkwardly behind the door until he hears the toilet flushing.

“You can come back in now” she calls and he walks in on her sitting on the toilet lid, her dirty sweatpants discarded on the floor. She is wearing plain white panties, Jaime's brain registers before noticing the owner of said panties is trying to pull off her torn running jacket with some struggle.

“My hands don't work either.” Jaime goes to hover next to her again and grabs her arm gently.

“You need to lie down, you look like you'll keel over any moment. I'll help you to the sofa.” She bats his hand away awkwardly.

“I need to wash. I stink like a ditch and I'm covered with blood.” Her big blue eyes look at him with pleading. “Help me out of these clothes, please.” She is right, her clothes are torn and she is covered in blood and dirt.

“Alright, ok, let me help” Jaime agrees and manages gently to ease her out of the jacket. Without the jacket, the sight of her manages to be even worse. Brienne's clothes are torn to shreds where she was shot and her white tank top spotted with brown dried blood. The gauze taped on her shoulder is arranged in odd, twisted shapes. Jaime wonders how this works, are the clothes now torn where the vet clinic workers shaved off wolfs fur?

Brienne looks vulnerable and so young in her tattered smallclothes and Jaime's heart goes out for her.

“Come on, let's get you cleaned up and I'll find you something to wear.”

Jaime puts his hands to the hem of her tank top and she dutifully lifts up her uninjured arm but meeps when tries to lift the other.

“Shit, alright. I might get you out of this top, but there is no way we can take this sports bra off. The thing is ruined any way.”

She shrugs and rubs her eyes.

“Hang on,” Jaime fetches scissors from the kitchen and cuts the tattered top and bra off her.

Besides the gunshot wound, Brienne has several bruises too, and scrapes around her feet and knees. The miles of her naked skin and her small swells of her breasts, dotted with freckles, is almost too much to him and he swallows. Jaime has never seen anything so beautiful and sad. She doesn't cover her breasts, instead, her hands are limp on her lap and her head is hanging. Silent tears flow down her cheeks and leave paths to the dirt on her face.

“Shit, Brienne. Look, I didn't mean to stare.” Jaime turns around and grabs a towel from the rack and gives it to her. She takes it, but just holds it in her hands like she doesn't know what to do with it. It's Jaime who wraps the towel around her gently.

“I'll help you wash now, alright?” She wipes her face to the back of her hand and sniffles.

“Hey, its alright, Brienne, ok? You helped me, and I'll help you? Ok?”

“Ok.” she nods.

Jaime kneels before her and washes her gently with a washcloth and soapy water, first her face and then her arms and hands. He stands up to wipe dried blood from her neck and back and she drops the towel enough so he can wipe her upper chest. Her nipples are hidden below the towel and he tries hard not to think how pink they were concentrates of scrubbing a smears from her collar bone. Her knees are scraped so he sponges those too and wipes her feet with the washcloth. Then he brings antiseptic and goes on cleaning her scrapes.

“Anything below that towel you need me to check out?” he asks, but she shakes her head and blushes. _Well_ , thinks Jaime when the blush goes all the way to the towel, and feels guilty when his cock twitches.

“I'll get you some clothes”, he manages to cough out and makes his escape.

They manage together to slip her arms to his largest t-shirt without her towel dropping and Jaime leaves her to pull up clean sweatpants herself. She is still weak on her legs, so Jaime helps her to the sofa and goes to the kitchen to rummage through his fridge to find something for her to eat or drink. When he comes back to the living room with a glass of juice he finds her curled into a ball and clutching a pillow.

“You'll be fine soon,” Jaime tries to comfort her again with mindless chatter. He has always been bad with silences. “The vet said that it will take 3-4 hours for bigger dogs before the sedatives wear off.”

“I'm not a fucking dog.” She grumbles to him when he sits down next to her on the sofa. Of course, he remembers now. He called her a big dog when he first saw her on the meadow.

“You don't like dogs?” He puts the juice glass to the table and pulls a blanket to cover her.

“I don't mind them, I guess.” She peers at him under the blanket. “The small ones can be quite tasty.”

There is nothing he can really say to that so he goes back to the kitchen to fetch some beer for himself. “Can I ask you something?”

She watches her coming back with her worried eyes but nods.

“Are you a direwolf?” She smiles a little to that and he sits down again.

“No, I'm just tall. I'm tall now, and when I change to a wolf, I'm a tall wolf. I change to regular wolf though, not a direwolf.”

“So you are a werewolf then?” That feels very weird thing to say, and Brienne looks uncomfortable as well. She pulls the blanket even higher. It's just the blue eyes and mop of yellow hair now peeking him now.

“Something like that.”

***

Soon after that she starts to fuss and wants to leave. That doesn't go well because her feet doesn't seem to work yet when she tries to walk and Jaime needs to help her back to the sofa again. “You are in no shape to leave, so just sit here, ok? You are welcome to stay here as long as you are needed.”

She grumbles at that but stays.

“Do you have anyone who can come over? To help you?” She shakes her head.

“Your family?” Jaime knows Brienne has a dad in Stormlands, he overheard her talking with Cleos about her father's fishing boat once.

“No, my dad doesn't know about...” She shrugs a little. “...the wolf thing.” So her dad is not a werewolf. There are a thousand questions that Jaime wants to ask Brienne, mainly “What the fuck”, but also “How do the clothes work with this”, “Why do you carry that stupid bag everywhere” and perhaps also “Can you eat chocolate” but he goes with “Do you like Pentoshi food?”

***

He is suddenly ravenous so he orders way too much food, and when it arrives he piles it all to the coffee table. “I'm really not hungry,” Brienne announces before picking up a box of pork dumplings. She eats them awkwardly, the box on her lap while she picks the dumplings up with her long pale fingers on her left hand. “Look at us” Jaime smirks while going to the kitchen to fetch more beer for himself and juice to Brienne. “Between the two of us, we have only two functioning hands. We're not going to do much work next week, are we?” Brienne licks some sauce from her fingers and frowns. “I promised to professor Tully that I finish scanning that trout fishing book next week.” She puts away the empty carton and wipes her fingers to a napkin. “Gods, I'm such a fuckup. I can't believe I failed her. I promised her I'll finish it, and now I can't.” She falls back to the sofa and looks miserable. Jaime doesn't understand why digitizing a gods damn 150-year-old book about trout fishing is so important. “You know, she could just easily come over to the library and actually look at the book herself if she needs it.” She looks shocked by the suggestion. “Professor Tully is very busy.”

“I think the drugs are wearing off,” she announces little later and tries to stand again. Her face has greyish tinge and her hairline is sweaty. Jaime remembers how ill he felt when the pain meds started to wear off after his surgery. “Hold on,” he tells her and gently pushes her back to the sofa. “I still have some leftover pain meds and I don't need them any more.” He fetches the drugs and puts two pills to her hand. She swallows them with juice and manages to spoon some lamb stew not long after that.

It feels strangely domestic, to have her on his sofa curled to a ball, while knowing that she is a gods damn werewolf, who got shot only this morning. But she is also Brienne Tarth, his supervisor from the library, who has familiar scowl and who came over to visit him in the hospital when he was down. He wants her to stay for the night, but as soon as she is able she insists leaving.

***

“Thanks, Jaime,” she mutters while staring decidedly her bag on her feet. “For helping me.” She looks nice in his sweats and a grey t-shirt. “Basic human decency, right?” he reminds her with a smirk. “Are you sure you won't let me walk you home?” She still looks frail and pale, but she shakes her head. The gauze dressings on her shoulder peek out a little under the sleeve.

“I don't live far away, just a few streets down,” Jaime remembers the address from his vet bill. He is a little nervous that she doesn't allow him to walk her home. It's dark outside, and the neighbourhood is shitty, he got mugged just around the corner. But then he remembers that Brienne is most likely the most dangerous thing out there, and feels quite stupid.

“Do you have your things?” He looks around and spots her hoodie from the floor and helps her to it. She has stuffed her torn and dirty clothes to her bag. Jaime picks up discarded cone from the floor and smirks.

“Are you sure you don't need this? If not, you need to promise me that you won't try to gnaw your stitches.” She huffs and rolls her eyes, but the corners of her eyes crinkle.

“Piss off, Lannister.” She picks up her bag and walks out the door. Jaime goes to a window to look at her leaving. He doesn't see Brienne walking away but a wolf-shaped shadow with a prominent limp lurks across the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaime actually has really nice apartment, but it's just much smaller that he is used to.


	7. Jaime asks some questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some werewolf questions get answered. There are boners in the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second part of this chapter was so hard to write, and I don't know why. I don't have a beta, and my solution is to let my writing to marinate until I can distance myself from the text, so I had to do that for weeks and weeks.

Jaime asks some questions

Everything still feels oddly out of shape. The days events feel like something that happened to someone else, or a plot of a book. There are small remnants of her visit left in his apartment, cone of shame and water bowl laying on his hallway floor, kitchen scissors on the bathroom counter and empty takeaway counters on the coffee table. He decides to ignore the mess and instead of cleaning up Jaime climbs to his bed and falls almost immediately to sleep. He wakes up on a late morning, groggy with sleep and memories of dreams lingering in his mind. He stands in his kitchen without purpose. Normally he would go out to run but now it feels odd to go somewhere where he has seen Brienne the Wolf. He picks up a book, but after reading three pages and not remembering any word of it he drops it back to the floor.

Jaime knows what he wants to do, it's just hard to give himself permission to do it. He showers, puts on his nicest jeans, runs his fingers through his hair -- it is growing out nicely after very short cut he kept in prison. He hovers still a little bit in the hallway, hesitating, until _fuck it_ , he decides, takes his wallet, pulls on his new jacket (his old one was cut off him in the hospital) and goes out to small pharmacy around the corner.

He doesn't need the vet bill to know where to go after that, Brienne's address is burned to Jaime's mind, but he pulls the paper out from his wallet anyway to confirm it when he arrives. The address is correct, but the house he finds there is much different he imagined Brienne living in.

It's an old brick house with a pawn shop on street level. The street she lives on is filled with chip shops, bars and stores with windows covered in thick dust. It takes some time for Jaime to locate the door leading to apartments until he finds it in the small alley between two houses. There is one bell by the door so he rings it.

He gets lead upstairs by someone, and then he is behind Brienne's door, knocking nervously.

When she comes to the door she is in a tank top again, and seems to be in the process of trying to pull off the dressings from her wound.

“I told you not to gnaw the stitches,” Jaime smirks at her. “Do you want me to bring out the cone again?” She rolls her eyes at him, and something warm lurches in his belly.

“Gods, do you have to be like that?” She scowls at him but lets him in. “Why are you here?”

“I brought supplies.” He lifts the bag from pharmacy and bats away her hand from her shoulder. “You'll need help with that.”

Surprisingly she lets him help her, so he washes his hands while she sits down to her kitchen table and pulls out things he bought from the pharmacy.

The wound doesn't look as bad as Jaime expected. It's an ugly thing, twisted on both sides of her shoulder and sewn together with big staples and stitches, but it looks like the skin is mending already. Brienne hands him the medical tape and instructs him to cover it with it.

“I'll go wash, and then you can put dressings on it again.” Jaime frowns. “I don't think you should get it wet...” but Brienne has already left the kitchen with a determined stride.

While she washes Jaime snoops around her home. It is much smaller than his, and even shabbier. She lives in one room, crowded with bed, kitchen nook, an ancient-looking wardrobe and stacks of books scattered around everywhere. It feels nice though, warm and cosy, with all sorts of feminine things like soft pillows, threadbare Dornish carpet on the floor and colourful woollen tapestry on the wall.

She comes back from the bathroom wearing a robe that is too short for her and giving Jaime all sorts of thoughts that he shouldn't have, so Jaime picks up a book from the floor to pretend to read while she dresses herself.

When she comes back to the kitchen table, luckily dressed again, Jaime puts new dressings to the wound and tries not to think about what Brienne's freckles would taste like. He desperately wants to spend more time with her and comes up with an excuse.

“Do you want to go out to eat? I looked in your fridge and there is literally nothing there. You have no food here at all. Besides, I think we need to talk.”

She frowns, but agrees. She puts on a jacket and runs her fingers through her wet hair with her left hand while holding her right hand awkwardly.

“Hang on,” Jaime starts to dig something out of his jacket pocket. He brought over the sling he used with his cast. “Put this on.” There is a flash of something in her pretty blue eyes, but it's gone in a second and Jaime doesn't know how to interpret it but he tucks it away in his memory to obsess over later.

“What do you want to eat?” he asks her instead.

“There is a nice pie shop a few houses away. Let's go there.”

The pie shop looks shitty put the pies are good.

“So, about this all,” starts Jaime at the same time she talks.

“How much do I own you?”

He doesn’t know what she is talking about.

“What? For the pharmacy things, you mean?”

“No, dummy, for the vet bill.” He looks down at his beer glass. Based on the size of her apartment and the ratty clothes she wears, Brienne seems to be not exactly well off. And the vet bill really was quite high, Jaime could have easily bought a nice tv or the latest smartphone with the money he paid to the clinic. Brienne definitely doesn't have a nice phone, quite opposite actually, it's scratched all over and the screen has a crack across it. Taking money from her doesn't seem right, so he deflects.

“Don't worry about it. It was surprisingly little.”  
She rolls her eyes. “Liar. I'll pay you back. Just let me know how much it was and I'll pay you back.”

“Look, it's not why I asked you here. I have plenty of money, and I don't need it back.”

“Why did you asked me here then?” She frowns again.

“Well, mainly because the only thing in your fridge had hair growing on it, but also because I wanted to ask about... you know.”

She just lifts her brow and smirks. “Ask about what?”

“About, you know... the wolf thing.” She fucking smirks still.

“What wolf thing?” He drops his fork to the table.

“Seven hells Brienne. I still have the fucking cone of shame in my hallway. I'm traumatized about this. I'd appreciate some explanations.”

She stuffs some more pie to her mouth and seems to think.

“Alright, you'll get three questions. And I won't answer if I don't want to.”

Jaime grins happily. Three questions. He should use this wisely. But what comes out of his mouth instead is word vomit.

“So alright, first thing. What the hell, how is this even possible? And how does it work at all? Like your clothes? I thought that werewolves change when there's a full moon, their clothes get torn and then they wake up in the woods naked. Not that you don't do that as well, I guess you might and I just don't know about it, but you still had your clothes on when you woke up yesterday. And what's with your bag? Is that where you carry your wolf skin? Or is the bag your wolf skin? No, that can't be because I had your bag when you were at the vet, right? So, did you get bitten by a werewolf or were you born like this or what?”

She stares at him and puts the last bite of her pie to her mouth.

He stares back at her. It gets uncomfortable.

“Do you want to finish my pie?” Jaime offers. She takes his plate and also picks up his beer and drinks half of it.

“Jaime, that was like nine questions. I said three. And yes, I'll have your pie, thank you.”

“You're not going to count that as a question, are you?” She snorts at that.

“Ten. That was ten questions now.” He takes back his beer.

“Aw, come on! And you should not drink beer when you are in pain meds.”

She keeps eating his pie, her long fingers wrapped around the fork delicately. Finally, she lifts her gaze away from the plate and looks at him again.

“Try again, one question at the time.”

He thinks hard this time.

“What happens with your clothes when you change? I'd think you'd rip them when you change and wake up naked somewhere when you change back. I mean, that's what usually happens with werewolves in tv, but not to you.”

She leans back and sighs.

“Seriously, that's the first question? About the clothes? I don't know what happens to my clothes when I change. I change, and what I wear changes with me, and then I change back and I'm wearing whatever I wore before. This didn't come with a guide book you know.”

“Do you have to change when there's a full moon?”

“No.” She spoons some more pie to her mouth. “Last question.”

“Aw, come on! Explain more about how you change. I know you can do it when you want to. How do you make it happen?”

She doesn't say anything first, and only takes his beer glass again and takes a sip, and puts it next to her own plate.

“Take back your beer.” Jaime reaches across the table, takes the glass and finishes the beer.

“Now, explain to me how you did that.”

“I just did it. Muscle memory or something.”

“It's the same to me, I just know how to do it. Last question, now.”

“So how did you become a werewolf?”

She picks up her fork again and clears off the pie.

“I don't want to answer that. But the bag is just a bag, not a wolf skin.”

* * *

“What in the name of Seven, Brienne?” Jaime almost shouts at her when she shows up at the bus stop on Monday morning. “You were – injured – like two days ago, don't tell me you are planning to come to work?”

“Be quiet, Jaime. I'm fine.” She hisses back to him.

“I really need to get that book done for Professor Tully” she explains. She looks surprisingly well actually. And Jaime doesn't know what would happen to his parole work if Brienne wouldn't come to work, so he drops the subject.

“Then you need to show me how the scanning station works so I can help you. My hand is pretty good already and I’m going to get my cast off this week.”

“Alright,” she agrees and sits down next to him in the bus. Jaime has never seen her taking the bus before. They truly are pathetic, him with his cast and her with her sling, and Brienne seems to agree since she spends the day hiding away in the basement.

They do manage to set the trout fishing book to scanning station between the two of them. The book is oversized, but luckily sturdy. Brienne shows him how to scan it, and goes to process the scans herself to her pc.

It's should be weird working with Brienne now that he knows that Brienne is a werewolf. But it isn't. It's weird working with Brienne because Jaime now gets boners around her. It's not that he hasn't thought about her like that before, he has. In the privacy in his own bedroom, he has taken matters in his own hands and thought about Brienne's nice firm ass and her long legs in her tight running gear. But getting random boners about her in the library is a new thing.

She is exactly like she had been before, perhaps only little more subdued due to her injury. She still bosses him around, and nags him about wearing cotton gloves, so when a few days later it actually gets weird he has a hard time figuring out what happened.

The first time it happens, Jaime is sitting next to Brienne in the staff break room eating lunch when an average looking man appears next to them.

“Brienne!” the average man exclaims happily. For a moment there is a look flashing in Brienne's eyes that reminds Jaime the wolf but she quickly replaces it with a look of such distaste that Jaime almost feels jealous.

“Hyle.” Brienne snarls. “I thought I smelled garbage.”

Jaime snorts and the thought that Brienne can be that rude for someone makes him both ridiculously happy and also a little bit anxious. Hyle looks put out for a moment but hovers still nearby.

“How are you, Brienne?” Brienne glares at Hyle, who still doesn't leave.

“So, I started here in the reference desk, so I guess I'll see you around?”

She still doesn't reply to him, so Jaime exclaims happily “Bye Kyle”, and the average man finally understands to leave.

“Ex-boyfriend of yours?” Jaime asks Brienne, and now Brienne is glaring at him. Her face is all fierce and pink, and her eyes are really so very pretty, angry Brienne is so magnificent like statue of Warrior. Suddenly Jaime realises that his jeans are _really_ tight and uncomfortable. He has to pull a book from their lunch table to his lap and pretend to read it before he can go back to scanning station.

It gets worse when he gets his cast off. It's like his libido has been bound by the cast and now has waken with fury. He wakes up with morning wood that is almost painful and needs to set his alarm clock 20 minutes earlier to have more time to get rid of said morning wood. Luckily he doesn't see Brienne again on his morning runs, since it would really really feel weird see her in the wolf shape when he has just masturbated thinking about her naked human shape earlier.

But in the library, that's where it's bad. One afternoon Jaime sits next to Brienne's computer learning how to post-process the scans. He is sitting right next to her, and they are quite crowded in the cramped nook where the computer is and Jaime has trouble to put his legs under the table without touching Brienne's long legs. Not that Jaime would mind touching her, he quite likes it actually, but Brienne keeps pulling her legs away every time they accidentally touch.

Brienne has very long and shapely legs, and Jaime has a hard time concentrating on the work and not thinking about the freckles he saw on her legs on Saturday. And then image arrives on his mind, a scene from his bathroom when he was kneeling before her and touching her, but this time they are right here in the library, and Brienne legs are naked, and Jaime is kneeling before her like before but his mouth is on her thigh where it's soft and then Jaime realises that he has the most inappropriate and painful erection he has ever had before. It's so bad that he pulls off his hoodie and kind of hugs it in his lap to hide it.

Luckily Brienne doesn't seem to notice any of his awkward boners. Jaime tries to analyse himself. Why is he suddenly so horny for her, when he should be if not repulsed at least weirded out. After all, she is a werewolf, and are werewolves sexy? He doesn't think they are, at least not in the movies or tv. Instead, he seems to find Brienne sexy, in a very awkward and endearing way, with her very long legs and toned stomach and her very pretty little breasts with freckles on them. He had thought her weirdly hot before, but the boners started after he saw her naked in his bathroom.

By the end of the week, it's clear to him. He gets inappropriate boners about his parole supervisor, the bossy, scowling, blushing, too tall woman who spends her free time in wolf shape.

Regardless of the boner situation, they manage to get the trout fishing book scanned in time and Brienne looks so happy, and _fuck_ , Jaime needs to put something to his lap again.


	8. Where they go back to the vet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gods I'm so sorry that it took me two months to update. I kind of fell into the hole and wrote JB knitting AU instead.

Where they go back to the vet

Brienne appears at Jaime's doorstep with her worn canvas bag slung across her shoulders and looking slightly embarrassed.

“Are you busy?” she blurts.

“No, just making coffee. Come in.”

He lets her in and goes to put on a shirt. When he returns she is still in his hallway, clutching the strap of her bag.

“What is it?” he asks but Brienne seems to be mute. There are two red spots high on her cheeks and she looks very adorable and flustered.

“Alright, let's have breakfast first, you can tell me while we eat.” He shuffles her to the kitchen table and switches on the coffee maker.

There is a pie on the fridge that Jaime bought from the pie shop last night. He has noticed that feeding Brienne seems to be a good way to get her relaxed so he adds the pie to the table with plates and coffee cups. He doesn't have a cast any more and it's her who was shot only last week so when she reaches for the knife Jaime bats away her hand gently and cuts a slice of pie to each plate.

They are halfway through of second pieces before she can say why she came.

“I need you to take me to the vet. Please.”

“What's wrong?” Jaime is immediately alarmed. Brienne looks fine and based on the fact how fast the pie has disappeared it can't be very serious but worry sets into his stomach anyway.

“No, nothing is wrong. It's the stitches. They pull and I think they should be taken out.”

“But its barely a week. The vet said they will take them out in ten days.”

“I heal fast, and they are uncomfortable.” She looks uncomfortable. It must be hard for her to ask favours from him.

“Yes, of course, I can take you there. When do you want to go? Should I call them and book time?”

Brienne looks relieved now.

“I already called them. If we go today they can take us in between the appointments.”

“Let me change first and we can go.”

When Jaime comes back from his bedroom, Brienne is gone from the kitchen and the wolf waits in the hallway. Next to her on the floor lays Brienne's shoddy bag, a dog collar and a leash.

“Well, my lady,” he tries to joke to ease his nerves. “Let me help you with your necklace then.” The wolf doesn't look amused though.

“Sorry,” murmurs Jaime and takes the leash.

They walk down to the clinic side by side, Jaime holding the leash. The wolf walks quietly, gently and with grace. She doesn't seem to limp any more. Everyone who they pass steer clearly out of their way. Most people avoid even looking at them. Jaime has never experienced people fearing him like this and he thinks back to the first time he saw the wolf at the meadow, and at his shock of how big she was. Bigger than any dog he has ever seen. She seems even bigger here on the street, walking calmly next to him.

When Jaime and the wolf arrive at the clinic the chatter of crowd in the waiting room quiets immediately. Cats cower in their carriers and yapping small dogs whimper and hide behind their owner's feet. Only a large crow looks at them and crows “Snow! Snow!” loudly. Jaime walks to the reception and the wolf stands up next to him to her hind legs and puts her giant paws to the counter.

For a moment Jaime thinks she will turn back to human right here in the waiting room but she only seems to be content to watch Jaime talk to a very nervous receptionist who checks them in.

The lady asks Jaime to sit down to wait and puts a small bone-shaped cookie to his hand.

“For our patient” she teeters, looking nervously at the wolf.

Jaime looks at the wolf - “do you want this?” and offers the cookie to her. To Jaime's great surprise the wolf eats the treat with great enthusiasm.

“You're welcome,” he pets the wolfs head and immediately feels stupid.

They retreat to the row of empty chairs and the wolf lays down on the floor next to his feet. She is so well behaved, Jaime thinks, but of course, the wolf would that be because Brienne is also very polite. They wait for a while and Lady – Brienne puts her head down upon Jaimeäs shoe and sighs. Soon enough a tall redheaded man comes to fetch them to the veterinarian. Their wait hadn't been as long as one would expect, based on the crowd in the waiting room, but Jaime suspects the clinic wants the giant wolf and his nervous owner gone as soon as possible.

“Great gods, aren't you a big girl” the man coos at the wolf. The wolf looks pissed off and lurches away from his hand.

“Come on, Lady,” Jaime calls the wolf. “Let's go to see the doc.” He follows the redhead to the procedure room and the wolf follows him.

The vet waits for them by the treatment table.

“Tormund, put a muzzle on the beast, will you?” She immediately stops walking.

“Is it really necessary?” Jaime has a suspicion that Brienne would not appreciate being muzzled.

“Yes. None of us wants to get bitten by that beast, do we?” The veterinarian has cold grey eyes which Jaime doesn't like one bit.

“Let me, then,” Jaime offers and the redhead gladly gives the muzzle to Jaime.

“I'm sorry about this,” Jaime apologizes for the wolf while attaching the muzzle and removing the leash.

“Alright, get the dog to the table, will you?” the vet commands. The wolf doesn't wait to be lifted, instead walks to the table and jumps on it with a single effortless leap. She immediately lays down and turns to her side, stitches up.

“Impressive,” smirks the assistant while the vet starts to check the stitches. The wolf whimpers and shivers a little so Jaime goes to stand beside the table and pets her head.

“You were right, the stitches need to come out” the vet decides. He works quietly, and the wolf lets him. Jaime keeps by her side petting her, and talking calmly.

“I got you, alright. Almost done, ok. You are doing good, I got you.” The wolf looks at him, and her eyes are the same blue that Brienne's eyes.

“Your dog is exceptionally well behaved” the vet marks.

“She is not my dog.” Jaime feels need to explain. “My girlfriend owns her.”

“What is she, some sort of Northern wolf dog?”

“No, she is a husky.” Both vet and scraggy looking assistant snort with laughter. Her chip had said husky, it was printed on the vet bill but Jaime hasn't ever seen a husky so he doesn't really know why this is funny.

“ _T_ _hat_ is not husky. Maybe she was sold to your girlfriend as a husky pup, but huskies are much smaller dogs. This thing is some Northern wolf breed, a dog with some wolf mixed in.”

“Are you done soon?” Jaime asks with his Lannister voice, bored with a mix of disdain. That shuts the vet and his assistant off.

Freed from muzzle Lady walks back next to him to the reception. He doesn't put the leash back on, there seems to be no point as she doesn't stray away from him. She puts her front paws to the desk again and watches carefully when Jaime pays the bill with his credit card.

“Were you a good boy” the receptionist coos to the wolf. The bill is a fucking 150 dragons for a less than 10 minutes with the vet. Even the wolf looks upset. They walk out of the clinic side by side, and as soon as they are out the wolf runs away from Jaime to a nearby alleyway.

“Hey, wait!” Jaime yells and runs after her. He finds her, Brienne, kneeling on the ground and trying to rip away the dog collar. She looks furious.

“Get this fucking thing off me.”

“Alright, ok, let me help.” Jaime crouches in front of her and reaches out gently. “May I?”

“Yes,” she says weakly, drops her hands and lets Jaime take dog collar away.

He stuffs it to Brienne's canvas bag still hanging over his shoulder and looks at Brienne.

She is not naked this time, in her jeans and white spaghetti strapped top, but it reminds Jaime last week when he had to cut off her clothes. Her eyes are impossibly blue and they seem to be staring at his soul.

“Alright,” he whispers to her, drops the canvas bag to the ground and pulls off his jacket. “Put this on.” He picks up the bag again and helps her up, but as soon as she is standing, she kind of lurches at him and for a small moment Jaime thinks that Brienne is going to headbutt him, but instead her mouth is suddenly on his, and Brienne is kissing him. I can't believe this is happening, Jaime briefly thinks before putting his hands on her, and gods, she is so solid and strong so he pulls her closer. He has wanted her so long, wanted to kiss her and touch her and now she lets him, and he doesn't want to stop. “Gods, you smell so nice,” Brienne whimpers when Jaime starts putting a row of sloppy kisses down her neck. But they are in an alleyway and people are walking by just a few meters away.

“Brienne.” Jaime murmurs against her neck. Brienne has wrapped her arms around his neck and every inch of his body burns where she is pushed against him. He needs to see her, so he pulls back again.

“Brienne. Come home with me.” She stills suddenly and looks back at him with her brilliant blue eyes. “Why?” Jaime touches her lower lip with his thumb. Her lips are red and swollen from his kisses.

“Because I want to fuck you,” he whispers. Something flashes through her eyes, some emotion Jaime is not able to catch.

“No,” Brienne answers him. “But we can go to my place and fuck there.”


End file.
